Billy Bragg

April 30 • Southgate House Revival

Billy Bragg has been proffering his brand of topical Folk
Rock for more than 30 years now. Is it then cruel injustice or poetic
fate that he’ll likely be forever best known in the U.S. as the British
guy who teamed with Wilco to deliver the stellar Mermaid Avenue albums, which featured lyrics by his hero, Woody Guthrie, and which worked better than anyone had the right to expect?

No doubt there are worse legacies, but one shouldn’t
overlook Bragg’s long solo career, which has steadfastly centered on the
concerns of everyday blokes just looking to live a righteous life via
the love of a good woman and the unswerving guidance of lefty politics.

He started as a snot-nosed Class of ’77 punk from the
appropriately named Barking, a suburb of eastern London, before evolving
into, at age 55, an esteemed British citizen who is expected to weigh
in on just about every socially vital issue under the sun (he was
especially busy in the U.K.

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Curiously, Bragg’s first album in five years, Tooth & Nail,
is a wistful, less politically inclined affair anchored by the tasteful
production work of Joe Henry. “Handyman Blues” makes light of Bragg’s
inability to help out around the house (“Don’t be expecting me to put up
shelves or build a garden shed/But I can write a song that tells the
world how much I love you instead”), while “Your Name on My Tongue” is
as beautiful as anything this still-dedicated rabble-rouser has yet
offered.

BILLY BRAGG performs Tuesday, April 30 with Kim Churchill at Southgate House Revival in Newport. Buy tickets, check out performance times and get venue details here.